People need to speak up more for Alchemist buff.

[Crevox]

To be honest I agree most pots are useless except for those giving mega-stats HQ.

They are not. They are far from useless. People just don't use them. Read my post(s) above.

[ToraFomalhaut]

When it comes to gear, people care about every single tiny point. When it comes to potions and food, oh, that doesn't matter. Most players won't even use them, and yet they care so much about the stat when it's on their gear.

FFXIV has yet to prove to be a game where min maxing stats is actually all that important. We had people with DL pieces while completing T5 before CT was even out. As it stands content in FFXIV is more about learning the set move list than it is about having gear that ensures you have every last point of HP, defence, healing power or dps you possibly can. Certainly, combat becomes mindlessly easy once you have tweaked everything to BIS + food + making use of pots as part of your rotations. But right now none of that is essential or even really needed. And I guess that's where the argument is stemming from, that with combat encounters in their current format, potions do not serve a NEED and there for are easily ignored leaving the Alchemist crafting class kind of pointless and useless.

[tymora]

Elixirs and ethers were important in 1.0 because BLMs can't regen mp like they do now.

[odie]

Crevox, it doesn't matter if you see the use and potential of the potions. The fact remains that the majority does not, probably won't anytime soon, and until something else changes, Alchemists will continue to suffer. I don't have the time to gather materials and craft even the low level potions. It's really not worth it to me. So unless you somehow manage to educate everyone in the game on potions and start some massive movement that changes everyone else's habits, you will continue to see people not using potions, and Alchemists left behind in the money making.

[TohruHonda]

I miss the old Alchemist being able to synth all your own crystals and shards.. It was an awesome job.

[Jynx]

I wouldn't mind a slight duration boost in exchange for a slight decrease in the stats they give.

I think 30 seconds is a fair time to expect for the buff duration.

[RaideDuku]

So basically, potions are supposed to be the "Drink in case of emergency" type deal that might give you a change to salvage a bad situation, but only once during a major battle? I could live with that, if potions where actually effective enough to do that. Right now, their ability to effect the outcome of a fight is practically nil.

Again, I can live with the cooldown, but they need to be worth that cooldown.

[Colvin]

Id be happy with a macro command for using items in combat (unless I missed it). If I could macro the use of an X-potion (whenever it is up) used in combination with Mantra and Second Wind, the combination of all of that MIGHT constitute one good heal every 2 min or so. As it stands, I do use potions at end game, but only because I have Alchemist Leveled so I spam them for the heck of it. This goes with High end ethers as well. I toss them in whenever possible as whm/sch as soon as the cool-down comes up. It isn't something that matters much but since I have several stacks I use them. At this point I think this is about the most you can hope for as far as usefulness goes. I also agree that at the VERY least, there needs to be a separation between various cool-downs. Using a potion that increases my Earth Resistance for 15 seconds shouldn't penalize my need to heal HP or MP in the next 5 minutes.

[Crevox]

Crevox, it doesn't matter if you see the use and potential of the potions. The fact remains that the majority does not, probably won't anytime soon, and until something else changes, Alchemists will continue to suffer. I don't have the time to gather materials and craft even the low level potions. It's really not worth it to me. So unless you somehow manage to educate everyone in the game on potions and start some massive movement that changes everyone else's habits, you will continue to see people not using potions, and Alchemists left behind in the money making.

So Square Enix has to ruin the balance of the game because people are ignorant and haven't figured out the worth of an item? SE has done everything right. The player base is at fault.

There will come a time when people realize how worthwhile potions are. Maybe someone will teach them, maybe the game will get hard and people will look for ways to do better. Ultimately, people do purchase potions; the people that DO know they are useful. Is there are large untapped market? Yes, yes there is. But what do you think SE is supposed to do about it? You want to them to make them completely overpowered so that people will feel forced to use them? Did you not read the CM's post? He made a perfectly good point. Right now, they are great; and the people that use them know this, and are very effective. Anyone else that wants to use them can go right ahead, however, there's really not much SE can do to force people to play better.

Ultimately, you can't blame SE. The potions are fine as they are. As the game evolves and players figure out that potions are worthwhile, maybe they'll start selling. From an MMORPG design standpoint, these potions are no different than potions in other games like WoW, and are used the same way too. They are effective and help you defeat content.

I wouldn't mind a slight duration boost in exchange for a slight decrease in the stats they give.

I think 30 seconds is a fair time to expect for the buff duration.

That would be a nerf. Potions are useful for the small burst of power they provide; making use of that burst of power in the most opportune ways is what makes them so effective. Increasing the duration would only make them worse if you have to nerf the stats. You shouldn't be trying to change potions into something they're not.

So basically, potions are supposed to be the "Drink in case of emergency" type deal that might give you a change to salvage a bad situation, but only once during a major battle? I could live with that, if potions where actually effective enough to do that. Right now, their ability to effect the outcome of a fight is practically nil.

Again, I can live with the cooldown, but they need to be worth that cooldown.

No, they're not only for emergencies. Potions are amazing in all situations, and no, their ability to affect the outcome of a fight is huge. I'm surprised the cooldown is as low as it is; you can use TWO potions in most fights.

If DPS classes use STR/INT/DEX potions at the proper times in a fight and in synchronization with their rotations and abilities, they are a huge DPS increase. They easily allow you to overcome DPS requirements you previously could not, or simply kill the targets faster (which of course, comes with a whole slew of benefits: save time, save mana, end the fight faster in order to live). Many fights have tight DPS situations that a potion would greatly help with (Titan Heart hard and extreme, Garuda sisters hard and extreme, Ifrit nails in extreme mode, Moogle first phase and getting down those painful moogles in second phase, I could go on and on and on).

Healers can simply use Ethers or Mind potions to boost their healing abilities. It doesn't have to be an emergency. A snapshotted Medica II or Regen off a White Mage with a mind potion is a massive potency increase. Combine that with a Divine Seal, and you double dip. That provides a lot of long term survivability, again, going against the 30 second potion duration ideal. Scholars can do the same with their shields; ESPECIALLY a critical Adloquium, or a Roused Whispering Dawn. Ethers are just a huge amount of MP restoration, and MP is power. MP allows you to do things. Healers have such a diverse skill set that they can be greedy with their MP and boost the groups survivability at any time, making more MP always a good thing. Heck, you can even use an INT potion and deal damage, snapshotting DoTs (both healers have them!) onto the boss. It helps more than you know.

Tanks can use them in tough situations just to make things easier to heal. Vitality potions during things like Ultima's orb phase allows a tank to have that extra HP to ensure survival when soaking orbs, or to simply stay alive while the healers are stressed to heal everyone else. X-Potions can be used to heal up as well, mitigating damage. Both are just extra tank cooldowns, and EVERYONE can use these; not just tanks. Tanks can even use a STR potion to boost their enmity generation when they need to pick up new mobs, or in an AoE situation to hold everything with ease (Turn 4, speed runs, Moogle, the list goes on). The DPS increase the tanks get is also quite noticeable, and again, snapshotting DoTs with it is even better, or timing it with huge enmity modifiers like Rage of Halone and Shield Oath. Because the enmity modifiers on tanks is so large, any amount of extra damage they gain, is in turn, a huge enmity generation gain. Can you understand how much extra enmity a tank can generate thanks to a STR potion? It's a crazy amount, even for something like Flash.

Potions are ridiculous. Like, amazing. Really, really good. Players (you) just haven't realized it yet. And I can't go around teaching everyone how to use them effectively. Again, the above are just a FEW examples of their applications; there are tons of creative, opportune moments and strategies you can use in different encounters to make them critically effective. They are the difference between life and death in many situations, especially for those groups struggling to push out just a little bit more of everything in order to win a fight. The only problem? The player has to know how to use it, and when to use it. That's not something Square Enix can hold your hand for you to do; you have to figure it out.

Using a potion that increases my Earth Resistance for 15 seconds shouldn't penalize my need to heal HP or MP in the next 5 minutes.

You use the potion that best benefits the situation. Is that Earth Resistance potion going to mitigate more damage than the X-Potion would heal? That's up to you to figure out. On something like Tumult, or maybe Mountain Buster (not positive it's Earth Damage) you can mitigate a lot of damage, especially if you're under Weakness and need that little extra survivability. That's the great thing about potions: you have a choice. Different potions for different situations, and players can make informed decisions on which bonus they need and when.

[Gesser]

Crevox please be less toxic in the forum. Presuming people are ignorant appears rude.

Most of the argument I'm seeing isn't that people haven't figured out the potions' "worth", it's that they think they could be worth more... especially for the cost.